Hole (body of water)
In Scotland , a loch (pronunciation: [lɔx], with a throaty “ch”) refers to standing water and some narrow sea bays . The word can be found in Middle English from around 1350 to 1400 and comes from the Scottish Gaelic and Old Irish languages. It can be traced back to the ancient Celtic * loku- , which is originally related to the Latin word lacus . In Irish English , the spelling lough is common and has been used there since the beginning of the 16th century. In German, hole has the grammatical gender masculine.
The term is used in Scotland for most non-flowing water bodies, both natural lakes and reservoirs as well as for many inlets and bays . The latter are known as sea lochs . Examples are Loch Linnhe or Loch Ewe . Many of the elongated estuary funnels of rivers cut deep into the mainland , such as the Beauly Firth or the Firth of Forth , are not designated as lochs . Smaller lakes are also known as Lochan. There is no fixed definition for the demarcation. Therefore, there are individual holes that are smaller than some Lochan. A few bodies of water are not designated as lochs, the most famous exception being the Lake of Menteith .
The word is also a well-known shibboleth used to distinguish Scots and English , as the voiceless velar fricative [x] at the end of the word for "Sassenachs", as the English are sometimes disparagingly referred to by Scots, is difficult to pronounce. Most English people pronounce the word like lock .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ dictionary.com: hole
- ^ MacBain, Alexander, An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language: L
- ^ Dictionary.com: lough
- ↑ Hole that. In: Duden online . Retrieved December 30, 2017 .
- ↑ The Januarist: Shibboleths as Spoken Cultural Passwords. By Dan Zambonini, January 12, 2010
